Top 10 considerations for collaboration tools: Part 2, users

In part 1 of this post, I looked at the top five technology considerations when looking for a collaboration tool. In part 2, I look at the five most important factors to keep in mind related to the user and company experience.

Ultimately, all of these factors are about driving adoption and use of the system, and achieving maximizing ROI.

1. Ease of Use

While ease of use is subjective and sometimes difficult to measure, it's absolutely essential that users are comfortable and not frustrated with the tool. That counts both for heavy, regular users like document controllers, and for others, like project directors, who may only log in occasionally. Since every vendor can claim its tool is easy to use, this isn't about trying to determine some absolute ranking: easiest, next easiest, etc. It's about the feel of the system and the obviousness of the interface and workflows. So how can you determine these? Ask for demos. Seek out existing users for feedback. Find what people are saying about it publicly on social platforms like Twitter and Facebook.

2. Great Support

No matter how easy a collaboration system is to deploy and use, there will be questions and issues that arise - specific questions from individuals (inside your organization or out in the project environment) about using the system and more general questions related to security, integration and optimal project setup.

How easy will it be to get the right kind of help from the vendors you're considering? Do they have multiple support paths, including a robust, searchable online help site for do-it-yourselfers, phone support for those who need an answer right away, and the option of onsite, face-to-face support should that become necessary? Where is the help located around the world? What about phone support availability and the onsite response time?

©istockphoto.com/ferrantraite

3. Designed for Your Industry and Need

Generic collaboration tools have their advantages, but you will have to spend a lot of time and money getting them to fit your specific industry requirements and workflows. Industry-specific tools that already reflect the business processes of your industry will invariably deliver more value for you and your supply chain in a much shorter period of time.

Related to this, vendors with industry-specific solutions typically have experienced support staff with industry-specific knowledge, so they can help you implement the system faster, overcome challenges more easily, and maximize the value of the system for you and your business partners.

4. Pricing Model

Choosing the right pricing model for your organization is essential for maximizing long-term ROI. While there may be a variety of models that could work for you, look out for a couple of "gotchas." If your collaboration model involves large volumes of information, especially large data files, make sure the vendor doesn't have storage and bandwidth caps so that you get slugged with additional fees when a project maxes these out. To ensure predictable costs, wherever possible, opt for unlimited pricing models for data, usage, and especially the number of users. Nothing kills adoption like per-seat pricing

5. Neutrality

For multi-party collaboration, neutrality may very well be the most important consideration. As I've discussed before, the other parties simply won't use a collaboration system that favors one party over the others, or doesn't fiercely protect their proprietary information. To maximize adoption and use of the system, and to get the most value from it, take a hard-nosed approach to neutrality.

As the distinct benefits of multi-party collaboration become more widely recognized and more vendors begin offering solutions, there may be a number of systems that could work for you. By taking a hard look at the 10 aspects discussed in these two posts, you'll increase the likelihood of choosing the solution that will deliver the greatest value to your organization.

Coming up in my next post: Still thinking about using an FTP site for collaboration? I'll discuss why FTP is not collaboration and never will be.

Leigh is the Co-Founder & CEO of Aconex, the world's most widely-used online collaboration platform for the Construction and Engineering industry